Xbox 720 'Durango' dev kit leak appears to be real

A Durango – or next-gen Xbox 720 – development kit that was touted for sale online looks to be real.

Digital Foundry has been in contact not only with the man selling the kit, but also with a number of other development sources – all of whom corroborated the hardware’s authenticity.

The kit – which was at one point for sale online for $10,000 – appears on the outside to be nothing more than a low-end PC tower running a debug launcher.

However, beyond clarifying that it runs on an Intel CPU, Nvidia GPU and houses “more than 8GB” of memory the leaker in question isn’t able to specify the exact specs of the machine. He does add that it’s a 64-bit setup designed to comfortably run today’s PC-based DirectX 11 game engines.

It also points toward an eight-core CPU architecture for the final machine, although Digital Foundry says that some of these claims seem highly dubious at best.

Note though that such development kits are designed purely to offers developers an early guide as to the rough specifications of the final machine and is not directly representative.

MCV is the leading trade news and community site for all professionals working within the UK and international video games market. It reaches everyone from store manager to CEO, covering the entire industry. MCV is published by NewBay Media, which specialises in entertainment, leisure and technology markets.